The global warming story that wasn’t

Sometimes you spend a couple of hours reading documents and interviewing people only to have a story collapse like a chunk of melting iceberg into the ocean. So why recount the story in the blog? Cause KUOW did a version of it, but got only halfway there…

Steinbrueck – who is widely believed to be considering a run for mayor in 2009 though he adamantly denies it – heard something different. “Pacific Northwest at risk,” read the press release from his office. UW scientists find climate plan “insufficient in helping the city reduce greenhouse gasses,” it stated.

The scientists were not pleased to have their words twisted like a tornado.

“It sounds like we’re going to be hit by a tsunami tomorrow,” said Marcia Baker, a UW emeritus professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Earth and Space Sciences, and one of the scientists who wrote the evaluation. “I never used the word ‘insufficient.’ “

Baker said she was worried that over-hyping the threat undermined the credible research predicting rising sea levels, reduced snow pack and higher risk of wildfires for the region.

“It was important to acknowledge that we need to make more aggressive efforts,” Steinbrueck said in a phone interview. “Our commitments are insufficient at this point and I’m trying to call attention to that.”

Mayor Greg Nickels — who is recognized as a national leader on raising awareness on climate change — has gotten 600 mayors to commit to meeting the greenhouse gas reduction goals of the Kyoto Protocol.

Steinbrueck said not enough was being done to combat global warming. But Nickels agrees.

“The mayor has been very clear that meeting the Kyoto Protocol is really a first step – it’s a very important first step,” said Nickels’ spokesman Marty McOmber.

The amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases being released globally has increased since at least the mid 1800s. Meeting Kyoto would mean “changing the direction of that trend line for the first time,” McOmber said. The goal is to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants to 7 percent below 1990 levels in the next five years.

“We really commend the mayor for having taken this on,” said the UW’s Baker. That said, “we need to do a lot more.”

In the press release, Steinbrueck proposed introducing language for the city’s Comprehensive Plan — a 20-year vision for the future — that sets a goal of cutting the city’s greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2024.